Overview[]
Annihilatons are "walking bombs" developed in Ming's laboratories. Essentially "mechanical men" or robots, they are remote controlled devices which are roughly humanoid in shape and size but possessing great strength and resistance to weapons such as ray guns. They are quick and agile and can be made to explode in an instant at the risk of harm to anybody unfortunate enough to be in close proximity at the time. In all, they are opponents to be feared.
The Annihilatons are still in the development stage when Ming has to deploy them earlier than he had anticipated. With a party led by Flash Gordon mining polarite in the frozen region of Frigia, Ming knows that his enemies have the key to neutralizing his death dust and thus foiling his plans to wipe out life on the planet Earth. However, his own men would not be able to withstand the harsh conditions in Frigia, hence the Annihilatons prove to be an ideal solution.
Officer Torch takes the Annihilatons to Frigia and operates them from the safe confines of his rocket ship. Although he is too late to have stopped the enemy party from gathering the vital polarite, he uses the deadly robots to great effect, completely disrupting the operations, killing some of the party and capturing both Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov.
Despite the successful trial, Ming does not bring his Annihilatons into use again, suggesting that he has only a very limited number of them ready for action. The very fact that they must be blown up in order to maximize their efficiency surely renders them practical only in the most desperate of emergencies.
The Annihilatons were seen in "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe".